MarTech Marketer, Remove this Word from Your Copywriting

The quickest way to make your B2B copywriting sound ridiculous is to insert the word “different” where it doesn’t belong.

I’m talking about the redundant use of “different.”

I’m talking about the silly need that some copywriters have to modify words that need no modifying, to modify nouns with the word “different” when those nouns, by definition, are different.

“Alan,” you’re saying, “show me an example.” OK.

You visit a vendor’s website. The vendor offers cloud storage to enterprise customers. The copy on their website say: “We serve enterprise clients in 32 different countries.”

Now, why is this redundant? Because countries, by definition, are different. Pick any two countries, compare them, and you’ll discover that they have different borders, different flags, different constitutions, different histories. In other words, as soon as you start talking about countries, plural, you are talking about countries that are different, because countries are different.

Here’s another example. You pick up a brochure at a trade show. The brochure is from a company that manufacturers video surveillance cameras for commercial buildings. The brochure states: “Our cameras come in a choice of three different colors: black, white and silver.”

That, my dear reader, is about as silly as it gets. Who ever heard of three colors that were not different? Colors, plural, are, by definition, different.

That’s why they are called colors, plural.